I killed Archimonde Heroic this past week. Killing the final boss of an expansion on this difficulty is a big milestone for me. I almost feel like my character has “beaten” the expansion. Anything else that happens (like some Mythic kills) is icing on the cake for me. Warlords of Draenor could end tomorrow and I’d be content.
It was a satisfying encounter and a great fight for hunters. Seriously, we rock on this fight. Especially with the glorious 4-piece bonus. We actually rock through most of the instance.
The one thing I don’t really get about Archimonde is why I’m supposed to care about killing him, or why he is even there. I felt like Blackhand was a more worthy end boss, he was at least one of the “Warlords.” I’m no Loremaster, but usually I understand the core story points and the motivations of the characters. With WoD I just don’t know what’s going on. All I know is we stopped the invasion of Azeroth, and after that it all seems pointless. I’m not invested in Draenor.
It’s all part of the reason why I want this expansion to end sooner rather than later.
There are plenty of aspects of Warlords I enjoyed, but I guess I feel like the whole package just didn’t come together in the right way. Almost as if all the various features and components of the expansion are puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit.
The news about WoW X6 being announced this week came at the perfect time for me. I need something WoW related to be excited about again. So bring it on!
There’s so many rumors and fake leaks out there that I don’t know what to believe (probably none of it). I’ll admit they are fun to read though. One universal thing is the assumption that we’re going to get another class that uses mail armor and ranged weapons. No, just no. Those are HUNTER WEAPONS! 😉
On a more serious note, how would they separate such a class from hunters? Magic damage? You mean like a Survival hunter? 😛 A healing spec would definitely fit the bill, but I still don’t know how the DPS spec(s) would be any different from a Lone Wolf Hunter other than a new resource system. Perhaps that’s enough?
Such a class probably wouldn’t get me to switch from playing a Hunter. The only theorized class that could MAYBE do that is the Tinker. Basically an engineer who uses contraptions, turrets, and stuff that goes boom.
My personal wish list for the next expansion
I’m just shootin’ the shit with this stuff. This isn’t based on anything. Just having some fun.
- A sanctuary hub city like Dalaran or Shattrath.
- Said hub city is where the entrance to our Garrison 2.0 is located, like an instanced residential district.
- Garrison 2.0 has nothing like a bank, AH, or any other convenience that belongs in the main city.
- It’s more akin to actual player housing. A place to customize and show off accomplishments.
- It is account wide. No more rolling alts just for the extra garrison income.
- No more mandatory buildings, but keep the fun ones like Stables that are nothing more than useful little perks.
- Since it is account wide, when you’re logged into one character you can observe your alts hanging out inside (probably limited to your alts of your current faction, or maybe not since in my fantasy it all takes place in a sanctuary city).
- If followers are still a thing, make it so we don’t need to check them 3 times a day to be efficient.
- The Draenor pathfinder system is re-used for flying, only this time it is available at launch (should still take weeks or months to unlock, but let us start working on it right away).
- The long-awaited transmog wardrobe system is implemented. Suddenly I have hundreds of free inventory slots and no idea what to do with them.
- Bonus: Your transmog collection is account wide, and I can use my hunter challenge mode armor on alt hunters (but only hunters, since that was the class I “proved” myself with).
- Additional ways to customize your character outside of transmog. Basically what I’m thinking of is like a spell/ability transmog system where you can customize the appearance of some of your core spells and abilities (like warlock green fire, but expanded). Have new effects/animations unlocked through various achievements. Things from as simple as changing spell colors to as complex as changing casting/attack animations.
- New races for Alliance and Horde, not a neutral one.
- Alternatively, new ways to customize existing races (dark iron dwarves as an example)
- New class/race combos, including GNOME HUNTERS.
- Reforging returns, but it is viewed as more of an upgrade than a maintenance thing. Make it expensive, make it something you only want to use on an item you’ll know you’re going to keep for a while. Hell, you could even limit it to specific slots of gear. If you limit or restrict it in some manner you could even make it better than the old reforging (more than 40% of a stat). My only problem with reforging was balancing hit and expertise caps, but that is no longer an issue.
- You know the Archimonde class trinkets? You should get cool bonuses like that as your reward for level 110. Blizzard can also use these bonuses to help tune specs at the end game.
- The level 110 bonus is different for PVE and PVP.
- Tier tokens should just be tier tokens. It sucks when your raid is super imbalanced between the various token types, or when one token type refuses to ever drop.
- A threat worth caring about. Big lore characters. Classic Warcraft stuff. A world that is visibly changed by whatever horrible thing is happening.
- More treasures/rares/etc. I find them to be fun distractions.
- Yes, even including the super rare mount ones like Poundfist. The only thing that bothered me with Poundfist was that he could be killed in seconds after taking days to spawn. Poundfist camping right after Warlords launch was probably the most fun “world event” I experienced in the entire expansion.
- A better balance of free-form exploration and structured questing for end-game world content. Out of all the various end-game hubs, I have to say my favorite was the Isle of Thunder.
- What happened to cool rewards from the last boss of the expansion? Garrosh gave me heirloom weapons and a mount. Archimonde gave me squat.
- Quivers.
- Dual wielding pets as Beast Mastery. 😯
- Complete revamp of Survival.
- More identity for the Hunter specs in general.
- Another cool pet taming challenge or quest like Gara or the Fel Wolf.
- Tameable pterodactyls
- My crazy idea about hunter pet loyalty returning.
- This is when I stop rambling.
Only a couple more days…
Along with the transmog closet… which would free up so much space…. I’d like to see Blizzard commit more time to the look of mail gear especially Hunter Tier sets. I love transmog but I don’t want to feel like I need to hide my tier pieces. Tier 18 was flat out ugly. I have a beautiful new blood elf and Blizzard is wanting to hide her under stuff that could pass as questing greens??? I’m really praying for an improvement. High def reskins of past armor pieces would be nice too.
Excellent post. Definitely interested to hear about what’s going on in WoWs future!
Now what if that Tinker class could dual-wield pistols/crossbows? (mind blown)
If they made a full on, D3 style Demon Hunter, with dual-wield and contraptions I would be very tempted to switch.
Transmog ‘closet’ is almost a must… 10+ years of gear sets and weapons? C’mon… continuing to add bank space or void storage slots is no longer a good answer, thoI doubt it is an easy dev task.
I’m good with ALL your suggestions. I really miss having a sanctuary type hub and I always thought it was a mistake not to have our garrison as an offshoot of Stormshield/Warspear. Make it easier for people to interact. Having a long flight to get there (seriously, for Horde, could Warspear be farther away?) is a mistake.
I’d also like them to expand the barbershop to include skin tones (annoying that we need to pay to change that), and way more hair colors/styles for all races.
I’d also like to be able to add any account bound item to something like the heirloom tab. (i.e. some of the weapons from MoP and archaeology gear/weapons). Remembering who you left them on is a chore for people with many alts.
And stop adding toys that don’t go into the toy box. please.
Yes…gnome hunters. This would be fantastic. Gnomes are my favorite race and if you read those stories put out during Cata for all of the faction leaders, the Gnome leader mentions how he has seen Gnomes adapting to all of the different capabilities of their allies. As he walks through Iron Forge he sees Gnomes doing things that were never part of Gnomish society and thriving. So Lore wise…there could be Gnome hunters.
Dual-wielding pets would be nice although it would have to be a real pet (with spell-bar) and not simple a guardian disguised as a pet like DireBeast, stampede of what warlocks have as a talent.
To be honest I haven’t really thought about a new top-ability or talent for hunters yet. I’m pretty happy with our current list of abilities and talents.
I agree that lone-wolf removed the need for any kind of ranger class (dark or otherwise) so I wonder why it keeps showing up in some of the “leaks”. If you look at Diablo’s DemonHunter the list of abilities is basically a selection of WoW hunter and rogue abilities.
I’d really like a Tinker or Artificer class,even if they could use hunter weapons. It could look so much different from other classes. Constructing your own “pets” or cannons to attack your enemies. Tanking in a steam-powered battle-suit like the mechashredder 5000 (or transforming into a tank like WC3) or Healing/Shielding people with flying drones. There are so many possibilities although i fear engineering as a profession would be neglected as a result.
Best of all the introduction of a tinker class could be combined with a gnome centered expansion to retake Gnomeregan (and learn how to tame beasts).
I liked the comment on additional customization. Years ago, I submitted a few ideas to Blizz. One of those ideas was tents that gave specific bonuses (yeah Blizz, I haven’t forgotten and you stole my idea and gave me no credit!) Another idea was to open tattoo parlors in the major cities. Have a set number of tattoos for maybe up to 5 or 6 body areas and go to town. It gets gold flowing, provides a cool way of making your toon different and lots of other great ideas.
As for a new class, it has to be entirely different from hunter. Not a Shadow Hunter, not a Demon Hunter and not a Mage Hunter. Tinker would be cool as would bard. Maybe some kind of voodoo hunters that use spears instead of what we use and they’re based in dark magics. Kind of a cross between DK and SP. I’d also like to see Horde get the Sabron as a new race. I’m still bitter about the Worgen. Genisaur would be cool too, but probably a logistical nightmare for armor.
I don’t know. It’s an hour after work and my brain is fried. There are so many things I want to see from Blizz. I need to go kill stuff. I’ll be back Thursday afternoon to join in the choruses of “Why Blizz, why???”
All fine ideas. I especially like bringing our garrisons into town. I miss the days of lots and lots of players hanging out in the major cities. There’s a lot I like about having a garrison. But the way they work now, I feel very much isolated from the rest of the player base. It would be much better if it were attached to a city, especially a neutral one, where all the things like banks, transmogrifiers, merchants, trainers, etc. are present. We could have our personal spaces, yet still be part of the great society that it Azaroth.
Sharing the same feeling though I got Archimonde a week earlyer 🙂 .Serious, WoD was a addon which startet partly epic (at least the main storyline on Alliance side…Horde did not even com close). Two rahter good balanced raids with bosses where every class could shine once in a while. And then….came 6.2. What a terrible contentpatch. 15 dailys to work on? Awful classbalancing and the complete lack of story. Well..you made your “legendary” quest…erm..here´s 50 gold and a ring..so long, byebye You defeated the superevil villain in Draenor..erm..no..I throw him thru the portal and utter a few ominous words and pass of. See you in…8.2 or so.
Your ideas are completley stunning, but as always I don´t have hope anyone of them will make it to the game. But anyway..thank you so much for accompyning all those hunters here thru Draenor. Keep the pace and hopefully we have a nice 7.0 with lots of informations showing up here.
We need a tab for hunter pets like we have for mounts and battle pets. As a hunter, I would like to collect them all too.
So are we letting demon hunters into the hunter community ?